Five suspects detained in connection with journalist's murder, one admits to firing fatal shot

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(CEPET/IFEX) - 12 June 2009 - The murder of Eliseo Barrón Hernández, a reporter for the newspaper "La Opinión Milenio", which took place on 26 May 2009 in the municipality of Gómez Palacio, Durango in northern Mexico, was ordered by Lucio Fernández, alias "Lucifer". Fernández is the leader of Los Zetas, a group of hired assassins associated with the Golfo cartel located in the Lagunera region.

This information was revealed by five alleged members of the criminal group, who were detained by the Mexican Army at a checkpoint in Lagunera when they were found to be in possession of drugs and weapons.

According to information disclosed by Zacarías Francisco Cabrera Oliver, a representative of the Attorney General's Office, one of the five people apprehended, Israel Sánchez Jaime, admitted during the preliminary investigations, that he is part of Los Zetas and that he killed Barrón Hernández. He also confessed to killing Martha Georgina Correa, the deputy director of the Durango State Attorney's Expert Services Department, on 19 May.

According to the ministry's information, Sánchez Jaime and the four other suspects detained by the military (Víctor Alfredo López Ramírez, José Pedro Jáuregui Jiménez, Oscar Cárdenas Castillo and Raúl Francisco Rodríguez Valderrama) entered the home of Barrón Hernández on the night of 25 May and, threatening him with firearms, abducted him and took him to Fernández in the district known as La Durangueña.

Sánchez Jaime confessed to firing the shot that killed Barrón Hernández while "Lucifer" shot him several times with his own gun. The reason for killing Barrón Hernández, he said, was to teach other regional journalists a lesson, and to stop them from lying about the work of Los Zetas.

Sánchez Jaime, 25, is from Gómez Palacio, Durango and said he is in charge of collecting the money that Los Zetas makes from selling drugs in the area.

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